We did a post-Hurricane Katrina Tour through the Gulf Cost of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana .

It looked like a war zone three to four streets in from the coast.

Wide swaths of houses, businesses, automobiles, boats… decimated. Stories of death were everywhere.

Yet many people were a ways into rebuilding, including many big homes hugging the coast.

Just as it all was before.

In essence, it's like setting the bowling pins up again.

The salient question(s):

Should these homes be right on the coast here, in California , in Florida … in the first place? Or should these coast areas be National Park land with hiking trails, picnic areas, wide vistas… so everyone, not just the well-off, can enjoy them?

Our administration would lobby for the latter I told the Mississippi Press newspaper during the tour.